Related to a recent thermal imaging thread, I found this on Youtube. It is taken from a police helicopter and is taken with a thermal imaging camera. Does anyone know what it is?
It appears to be a large meteroroid, called a bolide or fireball, breaking up as it falls to Earth.
Could it be a military aircraft dropping infrared flares (countermeasures)?
The video lasts for several minutes. I don’t see how it could be a fireball.
Notice the date and time. It is clearly Santa being shot down on his way home.
Swamp gas from a weather balloon got trapped in a thermal pocket and refracted the light from Venus.
I think it’s an unmanned balloon dropping or dripping hot stuff - either because it’s rigged to do that (a balloon with some kind of fireworks attached, designed to create a UFO stir), or because it’s going wrong (a model hot air balloon leaking burning fuel).
Parachute flair?
It’s a particularly fat seagull taking a shit.
At first I thought it was something in the air, then I started thinking it was a vehicle, viewed through an obscuration, trailing debris, say from a dragging tailpipe or shredded tire. But as it goes on, the trailing stuff seems to change and it becomes apparent that whatever it is is airborne. No idea except to say that it looks nothing like flares to me, and looks more like what Q.E.D. said, even though it lasts for a while.
Either that, or it’s a fake.